London's downtown was no different than hundreds of others
across North America. As London's suburban malls grew, the city's downtown shrank. Like so many other places, London suffered from the doughnut blight — a healthy city surrounded an empty core. Today many of those magnificent suburban malls, credited with killing the
downtowns in their respective cities, are themselves facing extinction.
This is the second floor of London's
Westmount Shopping Centre on Wonderland Road. The mall opened in 1971 with 15 stores and expanded in 1973, adding about 50 new retailers. By 1989 the mall, expanded yet again, offering underground parking and more than 160 retailers in two wings on two floors.
But big box retailers are doing to the malls what the malls did to the
downtowns — hollowing them out, gutting them of retailers.
Westmount Mall's second floor sits almost deserted today. With retailers gone, the mall is hoping to convert the second floor into office space.
At first, I eliminated this picture. Why? The fence. Then, I took a second look and decided to share this photo with you. Why? The fence.
One of the best things about living in London is how quickly one can get out of London. The other day my wife and I had to drive to Burlington in our four decades old British roadster. When necessary we take the Morgan on 401 but we much prefer older highways, like the former King's highway 2, and so does our little car. We can travel from our home in southwest London to Burlington through some of the lushest countryside in the world.
London's downtown was no different than hundreds of others across North America. As London's suburban malls grew, the city's downtown shrank. Like so many other places, London suffered from the doughnut blight — a healthy city surrounded an empty core. Today many of those magnificent suburban malls, credited with killing the downtowns in their respective cities, are themselves facing extinction.
The big pond on Steve Plunkett's Fleetwood Farms, on the far west end of London, had more than ducks floating in it this past Saturday. It was the 2009 edition of the Fleetwood Country Cruise In and Plunkett allowed the Amphicars to use his pond. They took to the water just like the ducks except the Amphicars carried passengers, attendees patient enough to queue up for a ride in the rare car/boat creation. It's been reported that more than 12,000 people, plus more than 3,000 classic cars, were at this year's event.
